WEST o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-15 published
Maker of men: 'The Chief' ran Kilkoo Camp for Boys
For 25 years, Ontario educator ran a wilderness camp for boys
and then helped launch Toronto's Greenwood College
By Allison
LAWLORThursday,May 15, 2003 - Page R9
John LATIMER's idea of a perfect evening was visiting with young
campers in their cabins at Kilcoo Camp, telling stories and listening
to tales of their day's adventures.
"You haven't seen the Pied Piper in action until you saw John
in action," said his long-time friend David
HADDEN, the head
of Lakefield College School, a private school in Lakefield, Ontario
"The kids just loved him."
Mr. LATIMER's life-long love of Kilcoo Camp, the Ontario boy's
camp he directed for more than 25 years, began in 1938. At the
age of 8, Mr.
LATIMER arrived at Kilcoo, located on the shores
of Haliburton's Gull Lake, about two hours' drive northeast of
Toronto, as a young camper.
He loved the outdoors and became an accomplished canoeist. After
several years as a camper, Mr.
LATIMER moved on to become a leader-in-training,
counsellor and program director at the camp. Then in the fall
of 1955, he bought the camp and became its director.
Mr. LATIMER, along with his wife
Peggy, directed Kilcoo until
1981. It was as director of Kilcoo that he became known as "Chief"
a name that stuck with him throughout his life. After retiring
from Kilcoo, he had a cottage built beside the camp and remained
active in camp life and as a well-known face to the young campers.
Not long after stepping down as the camp's director, Mr.
LATIMER's
eldest son, David
LATIMER, took over and continues to direct
the camp.
Mr. LATIMER later wrote a book called Maker of Men: The Kilcoo
Story, about the place he loved so much. He also co-authored
a camp-counsellor's handbook. With his wide smile and keen interest
in people, Mr.
LATIMER captured people with his enthusiasm.
"He just had this special gift," said Mr.
HADDEN, who considers
Mr. LATIMER his mentor and the reason he pursued a career working
with young people. "No one I know has had a greater capacity
to love so many people."
Mr. HADDEN added: "He had the ability to touch people's souls,
really I believe that."
John Robert
LATIMER was born on October 13, 1930, in Toronto.
After graduating from Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute in north
Toronto, he went on to radio school. He completed his training
and went to work as an announcer at private radio stations in
Guelph, Ontario, and Stratford, Ontario, before joining the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. At the public broadcasting
corporation, he worked in the film department but continued to
spend his summers at Kilcoo Camp.
"I think he worked to go to Kilcoo," said his long-time friend
John KENNEDY.
At a party of camp Friends, he met his future wife
PeggyMacDONALD.
The couple married on April 29, 1961, and later had three sons,
who grew up around the camp.
Not long after retiring as director of Kilcoo in 1981, Mr.
LATIMER
went to work in the Ontario government's Office of Protocol.
"He never had any intention of retiring," his wife
PeggyLATIMER
said. "He always said he didn't like golfing."
As acting chief of protocol, Mr.
LATIMER was responsible for
making sure visits to the province by the Royal Family and heads
of state ran smoothly.
In his role, Mr.
LATIMER and his wife had occasion to meet the
Queen, Prince Philip, the late Queen Mother and several other
members of the Royal Family. The Duchess of York, Sarah
FERGUSON,
spent time at Kilcoo Camp learning how to paddle a canoe.
From the Ontario government, Mr.
LATIMER went to Royal St. George's
College, a private boys' school in Toronto, where he was headmaster
from 1988 to 1996. About three years ago, Mr.
LATIMER and his
son David sat down with Richard
WERNHAM, a lawyer and entrepreneur
who made millions selling his mutual-fund company Global Strategy,
to talk about their dream of starting up a private school in
Toronto.
Together they, along with Mr.
WERNHAM's wife
JuliaWEST, founded
Greenwood College School (the school was named in honour of Mr.
LATIMER's mother, Zetta
GREENWOOD.)
The school, which emphasizes
not only academic achievement but the student's emotional, social
and physical development, opened last September.
"He fully believed in leadership and building leaders," said
David LATIMER, who is the school's director of community life.
"He always believed that through leadership, all kids could be
helped."
An active member of the school, John
LATIMER served on the school's
board of directors and took part in interviewing hundreds of
prospective students for the school's first year.
Having founded the school, which fulfilled a long-time dream,
Mr. LATIMER pursued another goal. He got tickets for his first
rock concert. Sitting in the 11th row of the Rolling Stones concert
in Toronto last year was a spry man in his 70s, said his son
David.
Known as a prankster, Mr.
LATIMER's jokes ran from sending dead
flowers on a birthday, to filling a room full of balloons, to
placing a strange object in a bed.
Mr. KENNEDY can remember finding a plastic rose in his lush rose
garden at his home in British Columbia and opening up his suitcase
after a trip with Mr.
LATIMER to find hundreds of packages of
matches tucked away in shirt pockets, socks and underwear.
About three years ago, Mr.
KENNEDY and his wife joined the
LATIMERs
on a trip to Disneyland in California. The two couples spent
three days going on every ride, and exploring every exhibit.
"He revelled in it -- he loved it," Mr.
KENNEDY said of the
trip. "If there is such thing as an inner child, he had it."
Mr. LATIMER, who died in Toronto on April 22 after a short battle
with cancer, leaves Peggy, his wife of 42 years, their three
sons David, Jeffrey and Michael, and grandchildren Tori, Thomas,
T. J. and Charlie.
"I do not regret leaving this Earth... because my life has been
utterly fantastic," Mr.
LATIMER said not long before he died.

WEST o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-23 published
TOMPKINS,
KevinJoseph, M.D.C.M., F.R.C., F.R.C.P. (C,) F.A.C.O.G.
Died Thursday, June 19, 2003 in his 70th year as a result of
a hiking accident in the Niagara Gorge. Loving husband of Mary
(née SHEPPARD) and devoted father of Joanne (Alan
LAWSON) of
Brisbane,Australia,Susan (Craig
HUDSON) of Toronto, Sean (Cindy
TOMPKINS) of San Diego, California., and Clare (Scott
WEST) of
Victoria, British Columbia. Caring grandfather of Myles, James,
Evan and Rhys
HUDSON and Teagan and Tasmin
WEST.
Will be sadly
missed by many siblings, relatives, Friends, colleagues and former
patients. An avid traveller, outdoorsman, geneologist, published
author and raconteur, Dr.
TOMPKINS was fiercely loyal to his
Cape Breton roots. Visitation at the P.X. Dermody Funeral Home,
796 Upper Gage Avenue (between Fennell and Mohawk), Hamilton,
905-388-4141 on Tuesday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Parish Prayers
Tuesday at 8: 00 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be offered at St. Joseph's
Catholic Church on Wednesday, June, 25, 2003 a 11: 00 a.m. Private
Cremation. Donations to The Bruce Trail Association, P.O. Box
857, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 3N9 would be appreciated by the family.

WEST o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-28 published
BEST,
Winnifred McDonald
Winn BEST died peacefully on June 24, 2003, at the age of 95.
Loving mother of Catherine
CARTER
(Donald) of Kingston and Michael
BEST
(Patti) of Waterloo. Beloved grandmother of Ian
CARTER (Chrissie
YAO), Colin
CARTER (Toni
THORTON), Gillian
BEST, David
BEST and
Kerri BEST and great-grandmother to Nathan
CARTER.
Loving aunt
to Elizabeth
McDONALD
(KenWEST) and Anne
HILLMER and her children
Victoria and Andrew. Special friend to Norbert
MacKENZIE.
Predeceased
by her husband John
BEST, her brother Murray
McDONALD and her
sister-in-law and best friend, Catherine
McDONALD.
Winn lived
for her family and Friends, her warmth and empathy will not be
forgotten. A memorial service will be held at the church that
she grew up in, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 9860 Keele
Street, Maple, Ontario, on Thursday, July 3, 2003 at 1: 30 p.m.
Donations in memory of Winn may be made to St. Andrew's Presbyterian
Church, 9860 Keele Street, Maple, Ontario L6A 1R6.

WESTGATE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-02 published
JeanetteKatherineEmily (Ma)
LINDOKKEN
By John RICHTHAMMER,
Tuesday,December 2, 2003 - Page A24
Nurse, grandmother, leader, merchant. Born August 9, 1910, in
McTavish, Manitoba Died April 2, 2003, in Winnipeg, after a stroke,
aged 92.
After more than 71 consecutive years in Northwestern Ontario,
Jeanette "Ma"
LINDOKKEN returned to her childhood home of Winnipeg
to be near her family. Within a week of her arrival, Jeanette's
hip shattered. Undaunted, she started therapy for recovery --
which was ultimately not to be.
Jeanette's prairie roots were deep. She was born in a southern
Manitoba hamlet to a family who began homesteading there in 1876.
Although she idolized her father James for his gentleness, the
home was ruled by her distant, undemonstrative mother, Sarah
Annie WESTGATE.
Even in old age, Jeanette fondly spoke of her
younger sister, Ethel, who had died from juvenile diabetes in
Jeanette finished high school in Petersfield, Manitoba, where
the family had moved to farm, and at the outset of the Depression,
enrolled in a three-year nursing program. Then she took nursing
jobs in Winnipeg, and in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Saskatchewan.
In 1932, at 21, Jeanette travelled by canoe to return an infant
to a remote Anishinaape community in Northwestern Ontario. En
route, she washed diapers in the lakes and cooked over open fires.
The experience forever changed Jeanette's life and began seven
decades of Friendship and work with First Nations people.
In the Northern Ontario community of Deer Lake, Jeanette met
a Norwegian-born trapper and prospector Oskar
LINDOKKEN.
The
Beaver magazine described him as "a figure who might have stepped
out of... the stirring days of beaver hats, freight canoes and
singing voyageurs." He became her rugged partner-in-life for
the next 47 years.
They married in 1933 in Winnipeg, and then returned to Deer Lake
to build a log home. Their meals were fish, moose, rabbit, and
bannock. Jeanette fished, trapped, hunted, and made campfires,
as well as cooked, sewed and made clothing, often from hide she
skinned and stretched. Despite her small, lithe frame, she often
carried heavy loads.
Jeanette used her nursing skills in every aspect of health care,
from tuberculosis treatment to midwifery to palliative care.
She nursed several generations of families, saved lives, and
also treated injured animals, which she fed with baby bottles.
Assuming charge of a situation, Jeanette often tread on toes.
But if she had a reputation for bossiness and brutal honesty,
everyone knew it stemmed from her caring intensely about others'
welfare. She was known as "Ma." Her defence of the underdog was
the stuff of local legend. In honour of her 50 years of nursing
there, the Deer Lake community nursing station was named after
Jeanette, and the Ontario government presented her with a medal
of service.
The LINDOKKENs also operated a general trading post, tourist
camp, and commercial fishing and flying enterprises. Oskar was
the garrulous, savvy front man, while Jeanette, a natural manager,
did everything else. Their store was a community gathering place.
Deeply religious, Jeanette laughingly described herself as "probably
the only Scottish Presbyterian Mennonite in the world." Her unshakeable
faith guided her through tragedies such as the death of her only
child, Jimmy, in an aircraft crash nearly 40 years ago, the death
of her beloved Oskar, and her own oncoming blindness. Despite
these hardships, the tiny-framed woman who withstood every rigour
of the remote North remained indomitable and engaged to the end.
John RICHTHAMMER was considered an adopted grand_son by Jeanette.

WESTMORELAND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-02 published
Susan WESTMORELAND
By Anria LOUBSER,
Wednesday,July 2, 2002 - page A18
Wife, mother, friend, reporter.
Born August 5, 1965, in Hamilton, Ontario Died April 28 in Hamilton,
of breast cancer, aged 59.
Bright, wacky, fun-loving and fiery of temperament, Susan Westmoreland
brought abundant energy to everything she did and could put a
positive, often humorous, spin on just about anything. Even cancer.
"Pick up some lottery tickets, sweetie - we lost the cancer lottery
and someone owes us big time!" (Don't think she was flippant.
She was plucky and very determined to have a good time.)
Sue was 5-foot-8 but, through a combination of heels and personality,
seemed six feet tall.
Her intelligence, sociability, sharp wit and palpable integrity
could make her seem intimidating at first. She was competitive
in the best sense of the word and didn't readily cut slack for
herself or others. Still, those close to her got to hear and
see the doubts, fears and vulnerabilities that made her adorable.
Friends and family (both human and furry) were at the heart of
Sue's world.
She loved the ritual of getting together and had a way of making
moments memorable by doing something special, creating a tradition
or saving a memento. Sue was a devoted, attentive friend; she
gave the best of her enthusiasm to others.
Sue brought all her gifts for Friendship to bear in her marriage
to Jon MAGIDSOHN.
Whether you knew them as "SueandJon" or "JonandSue," you knew
they shared many interests and had a deep love for and loyalty
to one another, but always with an awareness of and deference
to each other's autonomy.
Sue had a very deliberate way of envisioning, planning and making
everything and anything happen, from decorating her home to a
radical career change.
Vision and ambition drove Sue to find work that she loved. After
a degree in political science, a year in France, four years working
on Parliament Hill and four as an actor, Sue undertook the broadcast
journalism program at Ryerson University, graduating with honours
in 1998.
Susan was a born video-journalist. Every aspect of the job drew
on her strengths and challenged her to use them in new ways.
In 1999, she and Jon moved to Windsor, Ontario, where she had
landed a television-news reporter job at
CHWI.
She was exhilarated
by the demands of her job and became involved in the community.
Devoted to family and Friends in the Toronto area and missing
the big city life, Sue and Jon moved back to Toronto in January,
2002, when Sue was hired as an arts reporter for Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation Radio.
Sue was almost defiant in the face of the diagnosis she was given
a year ago. She was four months pregnant. After agonizing deliberation,
she and Jon chose to have a course of chemotherapy that was.
as far as research could attest, safe for pregnant women. It
was very, very difficult for her to go for those treatments,
but she went and Jon read her Dr. Seuss and The Stinky Cheese
Man while the intravenous dripped. Sue took a leave from work,
kept up her social calendar and enjoyed the nesting phase of
expectant parenthood. She had a vision of her and Jon's life
as parents and kept her eyes resolutely "on the prize."
Sue gave birth to Myles Day on Oct.16, 2002, and declared (with
gusto) that she was taking a little holiday from cancer. Then,
later, her voice cracked as she talked about just wanting to
be a healthy mom. The commonplace feelings of self-doubt and
anxiety experienced by new parents were painfully magnified for
her.
Sue was admitted to hospital April 24; as the pain ebbed away,
her tenacity finally did, too. Her sparkly aura and mega-watt
smile are indelibly in our hearts.
Anna is a friend of Sue. Jon
MAGISDSOHN,
Sue's husband, contributed
to this essay.

WESTON o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-07 published
Canada'sCatholic leader,
CARTER dies at 91
By Michael
VALPYReligion And
EthicsReporter Monday, April 7,
2003 - Page A1
Three weeks ago, John
TURNER met Gerald Emmett
CARTER for their
annual St. Patrick's Day drink. The former prime minister held
the glass for his friend of 50 years while he sipped his Irish
whisky through a straw.
When the retired cardinal archbishop of Toronto died yesterday
morning at the age of 91, a reputation as richly coloured as
the scarlet of his soutane died with him.
Canadian Roman Catholicism will probably never see his like again:
a prince of the church who, while never unmindful of the meek
and the poor, made no bones about being comfortable rubbing elbows
with fellow princes of politics and business.
He was the close friend of prime ministers and premiers. He enjoyed
socializing in the corridors of power with people like Conrad
BLACK,
Hilary and Galen
WESTON and Fredrik
EATON. He displayed
an unabashed fondness for Progressive Conservative Party gatherings.
("I think at one Christmas party, I was the only Liberal there,"
Mr. TURNER said in an interview.)
Yet academics and religious and business leaders also spoke yesterday
of a man with an acute understanding of Canada and its history.
They described an intense, intellectual democrat who believed
he should speak out forcefully on the moral and political issues
of the day and who welcomed debate with those who disagreed with
him. And they talked of a cleric who profoundly understood the
nature of the church and who welcomed ecumenism and Canada's
emerging pluralism.
"He felt the institution of religion should have a public voice
and he was not shy about exercising it," said Michael
HIGGINS,
principal of St. Jerome's University in Waterloo and co-author
of My Father's Business, the 1990 biography of Cardinal
CARTER.
"Whenever he spoke, his voice was strong, clear, public, undiluted
and welcomed by political leaders even when they disagreed with
him. It is an unfortunate circumstance that the marginalization
of religious debate occurred at the same time as he was eclipsed
by a stroke, retirement and age, at a time when his church needed
him. He embodied a certain kind of churchman we probably won't
see again."
Cardinal CARTER suffered a stroke in 1981 and retired in 1990.
Cardinal Aloysius
AMBROZIC, his successor as archbishop of Toronto,
said Cardinal
CARTER "wanted to know what the movers and shakers
were doing."
Cardinal AMBROZIC described him as a man totally engaged with
his church and with his society -- an advocate for the poor,
for immigrants and for the homeless.
"What I admired about him, what I found so instructive about
him, was his sense of responsibility for the church and for society
at large. He was very much a man of Vatican 2 [the church's 1962-65
ecumenical council] and he knew what the Catholic Church was
about."
There was also, said Cardinal
AMBROZIC, "his own personal style.
He had panache."
The priest who rose from a working-class Montreal background
to become the most powerful cleric in Canada met Mr.
TURNER when
the former prime minister was a young lawyer in Montreal doing
legal work for the church. "He was a great human being who understood
the balance between the religious and secular worlds," Mr.
TURNER
said.
"He loved tennis, and he had a wicked serve."
Former prime minister Pierre
TRUDEAU consulted him on the Constitution
in the early 1980s and became a close friend. At the celebration
of Cardinal
CARTER's 75th birthday in 1987, instructions were
given that an entire pew was to be reserved for Mr.
TRUDEAU in
Toronto's St. Michael's Cathedral.
Mr. TRUDEAU delayed his arrival until just before the cardinal
entered the church. "All eyes were trained on
TRUDEAU until Cardinal
CARTER arrived," said Dr.
HIGGINS. "It was symbolic of the close
relationship they had."
Toronto'sAnglicanArchbishop, Terence
FINLAY, who first met
Cardinal CARTER when they were both bishops in London, Ontario,
in the 1970s, said the Roman Catholic Church in Canada had lost
a great leader.
"He enabled us to bring our churches closer together. I certainly
counted on him as a friend and colleague. He had an impressive
understanding of Canada's history and political situations. He
knew who we were."